The past few weeks had seen Jasiir pushing harder than ever for his students to improve; the newest whispered joke was that he had become either a drill sergeant or a slave-driver in his methods. He had enhanced his spars, attacking with everything short of his Semblance, revealing that he had been going easy on his students. Whole teams were defeated within a class period, including well-performing and powerful teams such as RWBY, CFVY, and JNPR.


Unbeknownst to all except Team JNPR, some of his toughest lessons were reserved for Jaune Arc. Night after night, he had brought the young knight out to a secluded part of the Emerald Forest to train him in the use of the thu'um. First Pyrrha, then Nora and Ren, asked to accompany the pair, and Jasiir allowed it.

The first night, they boarded a Bullhead and headed out. When they arrived, they cleared the area of Grimm, and Lejule began looking at the trees. Periodically, he would tap the trunk of one of the trees before shaking his head and moving on. Finally, after studying one that was more than a foot thick, he muttered, "This one will do."

Pyrrha tilted her head. "Professor?"

He ignored her and addressed Jaune. "The power of the dragons takes the form of what is called 'Thu'um' or Shouts. In essence, you use words of a divine language to command reality to bow to your whim."

"Whoa." The blonde remembered himself and stood straight. "So, what do we do first?"

Ren, however, noted something. "How come I have never heard of anything like this?"

Jasiir sighed. "Well, as you are here, I may as well tell you four. I am not from Remnant."

Nora scoffed. "Well, duh. We knew that." The others stared at her. "What? You didn't? Come on! He did magic on the first day, and his weapons and armor are unlike anything I've ever seen or heard of. There have been times he's been near-clueless about normal stuff, like pancakes! Plus, how many Faunus have more than one animal trait?"

The Professor's jaw hung open. "I am astounded and impressed that you figured all of that out." He recomposed himself. "Anyway, Jaune, your first lesson will be to find the extent of your power. Close your eyes, concentrate, and look deep inside yourself. Try to find your soul. What do you see?"

"Um. I see a…cage. With its door open a little bit. In the cage, there's something white. Reptilian. It has wings, two legs, a tail, and a large head filled with teeth. One of its eyes is closed, while the other is half-open." Jaune opened his eyes. "That's it."

"Interesting. What you see is your dragon soul. From what you describe, it is only partially awakened." He stepped up to Jaune, his eyes flashing from their usual ruddy color to pale blue with inhuman slits. Some form of energy passed from teacher to student, and Jaune's eyes turned gold, again. Jasiir stepped back. "Incredible. I have fully awakened your dragon, and it may be more powerful than my own. I can begin your second lesson with the confidence that you will succeed."

"And, what is the second lesson?"

"You will be learning the first Shout I learned. Unrelenting Force." He nodded toward the tree. "When you have fully realized it, I expect you to be able to blow down this tree with just your Voice."

"My…Voice? Knock down that tree? There's no way."

Jasiir simply turned toward a slightly smaller tree and bellowed. "FUS RO DAH!" A wave of bluish energy flew from his jaws into the tree, ripping it out by the roots and flinging it from a few feet away. "'No way,' you say? Such is the power of a dragonborn. You can make the impossible, real. Now, to begin." He looked to the ground and whispered. "Fus."

A series of triangular lines appeared on the ground. "Professor, what is that?" She knelt down to look, but the Professor pulled her back.

"It is the language of the dragons, Dovahzul, and is for Jaune, alone. Jaune, walk over the glyphs."

The blonde did so, and wisps of power flowed from the marking into his chest. His eyes closed in concentration. "Fus. Force. The first Word of three for the Unrelenting Force Shout."

The cat nodded. "Excellent. You learn as quickly as I did. Now I will share with you my understanding of 'Fus.'" He stepped over to Jaune, and the same energy transfer seemed to occur. "Show me that you understand, now. Shout at me. At this stage, your thu'um will only stagger me, at most."

"FUS!"

The force knocked Jasiir back a couple of steps. "Good, good! Let's move on to the second Word, 'Ro.'" The pattern repeated with one difference: this time, the Faunus was thrown onto his back. As he stood up, he said, "I mean this in a good way, but your power is unbelievable. Your Aura must be one of the strongest ever known, for you are far more powerful than me. It is time for the final Word, and the test to go with it."

After learning final Word, 'Dah,' and receiving the knowledge of its meaning from Jasiir, Jaune turned to the tree he was to bring down and concentrated. After a moment, he Shouted. "FUS RO DAH!" The tree's roots exploded into a cloud of splinters as the tree was flung into the air and flew several yards. "Whoa-oh, I don't feel so good."

Jaune stumbled, but he was caught by Jasiir and Pyrrha. "Oh. My apologies. I may have made your training a little too hurried. I'll slow down in the future, as you have twenty one more Shouts to learn. Let's head back to Beacon."


By the time of the Vytal Festival, Jaune had mastered seven more Shouts: Fire, Frost, and Lightning Breaths; Aura Whisper; Whirlwind Sprint; Battle Fury; and Disarm. To ensure that he would not wear out, the pace of his learning had been slowed down to one word per night. However, Jasiir had warned him to only use the thu'um when he was alone with his team, as using it otherwise might attract undue attention.

In addition, the professor had forged new suits of armor for Jaune and his partner. Jaune's was a set of heavy plate armor constructed from a black metal Jasiir had called "ebony" that was only found in his homeland. The suit covered pretty much every part of Jaune's body from head to toe.

Pyrrha's new armor was crafted from a pale yellow-white metallic rock the Faunus had labeled "moonstone," also found only in his homeland. In a word, the armor was beautiful, with flowing curves and intricate designs, even more so than the ebony armor. Its coverage was far greater than her old armor, with her chest and legs completely protected, although her upper arms were left uncovered for mobility's sake. Curiously, it seemed as though the armor had once been larger before being shaved down to fit her frame.


Lejule led his family through the stands of the massive arena. The day had finally arrived: the start of the Vytal Festival Tournament. When they found their seats, Aela leaned toward him. "Well, you've been here the longest of us. What's going to happen in this Tournament?"

He leaned in as well and began pointing out what he spoke of. "This first round of matches will be full team battles, four versus four. When they enter the arena, they will walk to the center and wait for the environment to form."

"What does that mean?"

"I wish I knew. Anyway, pictures of the teams that are competing will be displayed there and there with a reading of their Aura levels displayed in the space between. During the match, itself, the rules are rather like they are in Cyrodiil: use whatever means are available to batter your opponent until either their Aura falls below fifteen or they are flung out of the combat circle; in other words, into that ring of sand."

"Got it. So, any idea who's up first?"

He reached into the pockets of his pants and withdrew the program sheet. "Let's see. The first match is–"

Professor Port's voice bellowed over the public address system of the Amity Coliseum, cutting Lejule off. "Welcome, one and all, to the Fortieth biannual Vytal Festival Tournament, and it promises to be a heart-pounder! I am Professor Peter Port of Beacon Academy, and with me is my colleague, Professor Bartholomew Oobleck."

Oobleck's annoyance at the use of the wrong title seeped into his voice. "Doctor. And, yes Peter, looking at the lineup for this year's tournament competitors is like looking at a list of the best Huntsmen and Huntresses of the coming generation."

"Cor-rect. For those of you who are watching the Tournament, either on television or in person, for the first time, allow us to break down the rules."

"The tournament is divided into three distinctive rounds: Teams, Doubles, and Singles."

"Teams will compete in team-versus-team matches. The winners of this round will select two of their members to represent them in the Doubles round, followed by the winners of that round choosing one member to advance once again. The remaining combatants will then fight their way through the final bracket in the hope of achieving VICTORY for their kingdom."

"Yes. In addition, age and school year are irrelevant. In this tournament, the only attribute being tested…is skill. Now, let's see who has the honor of the first match of this Tournament!"

Two sets of four picture slots appeared and spun. Lejule knew from talking to others that it was only for dramatic effect and would be dropped for all following matches. Still, he feigned interest in the selection. When the pictures stopped and the two teams entered the arena, Port spoke again. "It looks like we have Team PLTM of Shade versus Team MOON of Beacon! Team PLTM is an up-and-coming second-year team known for extreme power, but Team MOON is a group of rookie sensations with unusual tactics. Let's see what strategy is better."


Oreonna checked the tuning knobs of Symphonic Discord's viola shield, again. Even without wind, her shoulder-less black coat flickered behind her thanks to her fidgeting tail. She looked over at her teammates.

To Oreo's left, Maybelle held her massive club, Alexandra Grande, across her armored shoulder, looking completely relaxed as she looked at MOON's approaching foes. Then again, that seemed to be the big cow Faunus's standard emotional state.

To her right, Oran was playfully punching at the air, although not hard enough to activate the Wind Dust in his Gust Bracers. When the hyena noticed Oreonna's nervousness, he smiled. "Hey, no need to be nervous. Only the entire world is watching. Plus your mom." He nodded toward the stands.

Oreonna followed his gaze until her eyes came to rest on a now-familiar visage of black pigtails and green eyes. When their eyes met, her mother's flashed pink and brown to confirm that it was her before returning to green. Even more embarrassed, Oreo returned to the examination of her team.

At the other end of the group, Nichol was glaring at their imminent opponents. The lacrosse-stick-spoon-Dust-launcher hybrid weapon, Retour du Destin, was held point down-and-forward for quick access.

Deciding to follow her taciturn colleague's example, Oreonna turned her attention to their competition, Team PLTM.

Furthest to Oreonna's left was a young woman with coppery hair and matching eyes, although the very tips of her hair were black as though burnt. She wore a ruddy brown coat with matching jeans and a pentagonal arrow-shaped red cape split down the middle so as to resemble bird wings. Beneath the coat, she was wearing a yellow shirt. At her waist were sheathed two kris shortswords. All together, the woman seemed to be trying to evoke the imagery of her being a living flame or a bird made thereof.

Beside her was a young man who seemed like he would rather be anywhere else. In a word, he was average, with tan skin, black hair, and brown eyes. He wore a white t-shirt and khaki pants. Strapped to his back was a…well, Oreonna was unsure of what it was called. She had thought it to be a staff, but it was both too thick and made of metal; it was also too long to be considered a club. Additionally, there seemed to be two C-shaped hilts sticking out of the thin end of the weapon pointing in opposite directions.

Next in line was a Faunus, the first reptilian one she had ever seen. Claws tipped his hands and a long, green-scaled tail waved behind him. His eyes were narrowed and a disturbingly familiar smile graced his lips; it was the same near-psychotic, bloodthirsty smirk both Oreonna and Neo wore when about to kill something. The man seemed to possess no weapons on or under his snake-skin jacket. His hair was a near-black green and was worn in a ponytail that reached nearly to his waist.

The final member of the team, who looked to be the youngest, wore a red-and-gold kimono, with fair features that were reminiscent of Lie Ren or Yatsuhashi Daichi; maybe she was from the same ethnic group as them? Her black hair was tied up into a bun and secured with…were those chopsticks? Secured to her back on a worn leather strap was a large slab of wood with what seemed to be tiny legs at either end. Attached to her index and middle fingers and thumb were chisel-shaped pieces of bamboo; Oreonna had no idea what those were for. When Team PLTM reached the center of the arena, the teenager slid the wood off her shoulders and laid it on the ground; now able to see it better, Oreonna was able to determine that it was some variety of string instrument and that the bamboo strapped to her fingers probably worked like guitar picks.

Around the border of the fighting area, the screens representing the terrain selection flared into life and began cycling. The woman in the long coat called out to Oreonna's friends. "May the best team win."

An echoing "ding" sound signaled the selection of the environment on Team MOON's side. The picture showed a stylized representation of a collapsed building. Their half of the combat area opened up and a ruined cityscape rose into view.


Aela's and Lejule's eyes widened and their jaws dropped. "Okay. I wasn't expecting that. That's pretty damn impressive."

"Wow. Not even the Imperial City Arena can do that."


A second ding indicated that the other half of the arena was set; a rendering of two trees preceded the arrival of a forest. Maybelle grabbed the handle of Alexandra Grande in both hands and swung it in front of her, using her Semblance to lessen gravity's hold on her. "Get ready."

Oran punched his fists together to prime the Wind Dust within them.

Oreonna drew her gun-sword, which also doubled as the bow for the viola portion of her shield.

Nichol held her staff to the side and rotated the Dust chamber to Ice Dust.

The hyena Faunus cackled when he saw that. "'Ice to see you make such an appropriate choice, Frost Duchess."

That earned him a groan and a glare from the gray-haired girl. "One, please don't call me that. Two, you should be shot for that pun."

"Hey, it wasn't that bad."

"Maybe not, but it was too unoriginal for you."

The only man on Team MOON turned toward her. "Whoa! Was that an attempt at a joke? There may be hope for you yet."

Nichol simply groaned again.

Oobleck and Port came back onto the loudspeaker. "3…2…1…Begin!"

The snake leaped forward, but was blown back by Oran, who followed him into the forest.

Maybelle and Mr. Ordinary engaged in club-to-club combat.

Team PLTM's leader drew her kris and pounced on Nichol, who formed an ice projectile and froze the other woman's leg.

Oreonna, on the other hand, decided to speak to her opponent. "So, you're a musician?"

She looked up. "Yes." She looked at Oreo's viola. "Are you?"

The cat nodded her head to the side. "After a fashion."

Without another word, the girl began plucking at the strings of her instrument. After a moment, Oreonna recognized the tune, put the viola-shield's pad to her neck, and drew the bow across the strings as she joined in.


Lawrence Topaz grabbed Wolfsbane in both hands and used it to knock aside the absurdly large club wielded by the large cow Faunus. Before the club struck the ground, he jabbed his kanabo into her face, knocking her back. He followed it up with an uppercut swing that sent her stumbling.

She then caught him off guard by parleying her stumble into a wide swing of her club that threw him into one of the artificial buildings and drained a large amount of his Aura.


Typhon caught himself on a tree with his tail, hissing at the hyena and flexing his claws. He concentrated on his soul, energy flowing through his body until it exited his lips as a blast of flame.

The damn hyena simply blew the fire back at him.

Although his Semblance protected both him and his clothes from the blaze, Typhon was still pissed off by his foe's sheer cocky attitude. He dropped to the ground and crawled toward his opponent, dodging gusts of wind launched from the hyena's fists the whole way.

When he was close enough, he pounced at the orange-haired annoyance and slammed his tail into him. Pressing his advantage, Typhon launched himself at the hyena.

Then something happened that he didn't expect. The other Faunus shouted, "Hey, Maybelle. Laughing Cow!"

The cow Faunus, who had just knocked Lawrence into a fake building, pointed her club in their direction, popped the top off of it, and discharged a massive cannonball at them. The hyena's fist intercepted it and redirected it into the snake's chest.

The impact wrenched the air from Typhon's lungs and sent him into a tree. He was unable to recover before the hyena was upon him, point-blank wind blasts from his bracers shredding what was left of the snake's Aura until the fifteen-percent buzzer sounded.

The arena's speakers interjected Professor Port's opinion. "Oh, great teamwork on the part of Maybelle and Oran."

Oobleck joined in. "And a breathless defeat for Ebon Typhon."


Cadmin smiled as her weapons blurred from the speed of her strikes against her opposing caped warrior. Her smile widened as she took note of how many of those strikes were being blocked by the other woman's staff.

The smile turned into a full-blown grin when one exchange ended with both of her blades locked with her foe's weapon. "Having fun? I sure am."

"This is no game." Her opponent shoved her away, the revolving Dust chamber of the spoon-tipped staff rotating until Burn Dust was the active one. A flick of the weapon sent a stream of fire hurtling toward Phoenix, who, just for show, hopped and twisted out of the way.

She came down and clacked her kris' hilts together, the mechanisms within combining the two daggers into a double-bladed staff. "Of course it is." She crouched down and charged her Semblance.

Oobleck spoke up then. "Oh, Nichol might want to move."

Port chimed in. "Yes. Phoenix's Semblance is quite devastating."

Rather than stand there and question what the announcers were speaking of or futily turn and run, Nichol raised her hand and a shield of pure energy sprang into being. Then Cadmin practically exploded. A massive conflagration emanated from her and struck the force field. The blast flung the mage back, although her Semblance had managed to protect her from the worst of the damage.

Phoenix rushed in, and the two became whirlwinds of twirling staffs, striking and blocking at a furious pace. Finally, the redhead batted away Nichol's staff with one end of her weapon and stab away most of her opponent's remaining Aura, eliminating her. She reached down a hand. "Good game."


Lawrence pulled himself out of the rubble and shook his head to remove the cobwebs. A thud followed by a buzzer brought his attention to his team leader just in time to see her sliding down the defensive barrier between the fighters and the audience, having been ejected from the combat area by the cow. A familiar rage overtook him; his pack was being harmed. In response, his Semblance activated.

His legs stretched and bent into a digitigrade form. His black hair spread to become fur that covered the entirety of his body, with the exception of his face above his chin. His finger- and toenails stretched into bone-white claws. Bony armor grew in a rib-cage pattern over the fur chest and back. Similar blunt spines grew out of his shoulders, elbows, back, and knees, and studs of bone formed on his hips and shoulders. The skin and muscle on his face seemed to dissolve away until all that remained was red-streaked bone. His ears migrated to the top of his head and lengthened. His jaws pushed outward into a lupine muzzle. The transformation was over with quickly, and he roared in challenge.

Oobleck's comment was understandably awestruck. "Ladies and gentlemen, here we have one of the most unique Semblances I have ever seen. Feast your eyes on the Wolf of Shade."

The hyena, Oran, was the closer challenger. He sucked in a breath, his chest expanding greatly. Having seen what happened to Typhon, Lawrence dug his claws into the false pavement. This ensured that he only slid back a few feet from the orange-haired boy's full lung capacity. In a flurry of activity, Lawrence rushed forward and battered the exhausted Faunus boy with his claws and club. The buzzer rang again to indicate the blower's defeat.


That all happened in the time it took for Maybelle to turn around. She coiled her legs and leaped high into the air before reversing her Semblance and coming down like a meteor. The monster was quicker, however, and avoided most of her swings.

The entire time, she was wondering how the heck a beowolf alpha managed to get into the arena. Then she hit it, and Alexandra struck Aura. That was when the words of Doctor Oobleck registered in her mind. He can shapeshift?!

A straight kick walloped her in the chest, sending her tumbling almost to the edge of the combat area, followed closely by the wolf. She bounded out of the way of its charge using her Semblance. This turned out to be the worst idea.

He swung the club at her, and the tip of the handle separated from the main body, which continued its flight directly at Maybelle. Somehow, the other student had managed to time it so that she was hit just as she was leaving the ground. This caused her to throw herself out of the combat area and onto the sand.


By this time, Oreonna and the other girl of PLTM had finished their duet. "You play rather well, Miss…?"

"My name is Mosura. And yours?"

"Oreonna. You know, we should play together some other time."

Mosura nodded. "Yes, we should. I am now a little ashamed that this is a combat tournament, as I would rather not fight you, now."

Oreonna smirked. "You could surrender, save yourself the trouble."

The other girl laughed. "My teammates would never let me hear the end of it."

A roar behind her reminded Oreonna that Mosura wasn't alone. She brought her shield up to block the double slash from the one other remaining member of Team PLTM, the rebounding effect of the strings dropping his Aura to fourteen percent; Maybelle could hit hard, having reduced his Aura to sixteen percent, previously.

She turned back to her opponent to see her finish casting away her kimono, revealing what amounted to a brown, backless tank top, matching short-shorts, and a tiny set of moth wings. Mosura picked up her instrument and tapped a disguised panel on the bottom of it; the panel slid open, revealing a katana that crackled with Lightning Dust when it was drawn from its sheath.

"It is down to you and me. May the best sword-and-shield user emerge victorious. Good luck, Oreonna." She planted the instrument in front of her as though it were a tower shield, her sword held point-up above the shield.

The cat moved to strike first, then activated her Semblance and split into two individuals that struck on either side of the moth. Smashed between shield and sabre, Mosura was sent stumbling a few steps. Sword!Oreonna hopped onto her black-haired duplicate's shield, using it as a springboard to launch herself at the other Faunus.

The sword slash hit just the wooden shield. Then Mosura activated her Semblance and underwent her own transformation, her wings expanding to a span of nearly twenty feet as she lifted off the ground. She flew at both Oreonnas, her katana weaving a deadly electrical pattern through the air.

To avoid the attack, Oreonna merged herself back together and ran for the forest, realizing that the trees were too dense for her flying opponent to move through. What she didn't count on was for Mosura to fly still higher and emit lightning from her wings. A multitude of bolts struck among the wood, setting the timber ablaze and eliciting a very unladylike expletive from the cat, who scrambled to find somewhere that was safe from the barrage.

Even with her feline speed, Oreonna was still struck by two of the jagged yellow beams, throwing her off her feet and drastically draining her Aura. The only thing that saved her was that Mosura's Semblance suddenly ended and the moth collapsed in exhaustion. Oreo slowly picked herself up, staggered over to her foe, and put her sword to the other Faunus's chin.

To her surprise, Mosura simply smiled. "Withstanding the entirety of my Semblance. You have earned a very worthy win." She then fell over, unconscious.

"And, by a very narrow margin, Team MOON clinches the victory and moves on."


AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was a chapter I've been wanting to do for a while (although far from the one I most anticipate writing). I hope I've written Team MOON well enough, considering how little there actually is about them.

I do have one question for LongSean22: Who would Team MOON send to the doubles round?

This also marks the appearance of a few of my RWBY OCs: Team PLTM. Every team in the show (and a number of fan teams follow the example) has a theme: RWBY is fairy tales, JNPR is genderbent historical/mythological characters, CRDL is birds, CFVY is food (I wish I was making that up.), and LongSean22's OC Team MOON is "The Cat and the Fiddle" (or whatever that nursery rhyme is entitled).

Well, Team PLTM's theme is mythological/movie monsters. Its leader, Cadmin Phoenix is based on the primarily-Greek Phoenix bird (Her Semblance, rather like that of Marvel's supervillain Nitro, lets her create an explosion and survive it.); Lawrence is, rather obviously, based on The Wolfman, Lawrence Talbot (His Semblance is to transform into a beowolf Alpha.); Ebon Typhon is based on Typhon, the Greek "Father of Monsters" (His Semblance is to breathe fire.) and Mosura (full name Mosura Niji) is based on Mothra from the Toho kaiju movies (specifically her incarnation from Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth) (Her Semblance gives her several of the powers Mothra displayed in that movie.).